Since the supernatural pretty much has hold of the YA literary market (and I'm not just talking about Harry Potter) it was with some curiosity that I picked up The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall. This book bucks the trend of popular serial books in that it's not about witches, dragons or anyone with special powers. This book about regular kids won a National Book Award for Young People's Literature.Written in a clean style and a narrative voice without affectations, this story is about four sisters, whose father rents a summer cottage on an estate called Arundel. Jane, Rosalind, Skye & Batty are four girls for whom adventure is finding out what's behind fences, kicking balls over hedges, and dodging the unfriendly stares of the haughty Mrs. Tifton, owner of the mansion on whose grounds the cottage is on. She's also the single-mother of the unhappy but friendly Jeffrey, whom the girls befriend. As anyone in a large family can attest, each sister is unique. Rosalind is the eldest and the nurturer, Jane is a young writer, Skye is forthright and determined, and Batty is the youngest, who at four, wanders whilst wearing angel wings. Jeffrey dreams of being a concert pianist, even though his mother is determined that he'll follow in her own father's footsteps and attend military school. In this book, the kids discover that a summer friendship can be a life changing one; for all five discover their strengths and desires.
The only plot cliché was the virtuous dead mother scenario. From The Secret Garden to Lemony Snicket, mothers (and often fathers) are disposable in the YA genre. It's an impossible cliché to ever bemoan or try to correct, for what it does is free up the children to act out fantasies a bit more broadly than if both parents had noses-in (and by the way, clean up your room....).
This book will transport older readers back to books by Maud Hart Lovelace (Betsy, Tacey & Tibb), Beverly Cleary (Beezus & Ramona, Henry Huggins), Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House On The Prairie), and Jerry West & Helen S. Hamilton (The Happy Hollisters). It will provide younger readers with some genuine laughs and enough what-happens-next moments to turn them into lifetime readers. Ms. Birdsall provides a character-driven story about kids who behave, think and act like kids in a natural setting.
Published in 2005, Ms. Birdsall has a follow up due in 2008, and plans on writing a total of five Penderwick adventures.
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4 comments:
It is true that most adventure stories for children feature families with no mother. Obviously, if the mother was around, she'd get in the way of all that adventure and ruin everything.
One of my favorite children's series was Mary Norton's 'The Borrowers.' The mother in The Borrowers fussed, worried and nagged almost non-stop. In short, she was a perfect role model, and I still remember her fondly. I'm pretty sure I owe a lot of my maternal style to her good example.
Yes, and there's always a considerate, kind, absent minded father!
I am glad you wrote this post. I lead a book club for young ones and was looking for a book to read for this month. They are already reading Harry Potter and I wanted them to have a variety. The Penderwicks, sounds like the ticket.
Carol...it's a total throwback.
It's only $8.99, so it should be affordable.
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